Scunthorpe boss Stuart McCall hails Lee Novak’s match-winning bunion

Posted Sunday, September 23, 2018 by PA

Boss Stuart McCall was full of praise for Lee Novak and his match-winning bunion as Scunthorpe finally ended their wait for a victory at Glanford Park at the expense of struggling Shrewsbury.

The Iron manager admitted he had doubts about whether the striker had got even the faintest of touches to Josh Morris’ pacy cross, which nestled into the far corner of the net in the 55th minute.

But he was willing to give Novak the benefit of the doubt, with a particular part of the front man’s anatomy proving decisive.

McCall said: “It was a great ball in by Josh. I wasn’t sure Noves (Lee Novak) got anything on it, but he said it came off his big bunion – and believe me, it’s a big bunion.

“We’ll give him that, so it’s Bunion 1 Shrewsbury 0. In all seriousness, that will do his confidence the world of good.

“There’s a lot to Noves’ game that people don’t see. His knowledge and know-how is so important – he talks the younger lads through the game. As a centre forward, he’s paid to get goals, but his work ethic is fantastic.

“All week we preached how hard Shrewsbury would be to break down. They don’t concede many goals or give away many opportunities.

“I said to the players at half-time that the game had 1-0 written all over it and we had to make sure it was us who got that one.

“We knew it would probably be a bit of a grind, but I thought once we got the goal we got stronger and looked better.

“Yes we could have got a couple more goals, but I’ll take 1-0 at home any day.”

Novak’s breakthrough 10 minutes into the second half settled a clash which failed to get going until first-half stoppage time, when visiting keeper Joel Coleman produced two strong stops to deny Scunthorpe’s Ike Ugbo.

The on-loan Chelsea youngster was also denied by the Shrews stopper minutes after his side had gone in front, using his chest to keep out the Iron man, who had been put through one-on-one.

Shrewsbury did have a few half chances to level, the best of which saw Greg Docherty fire wide from inside the six-yard box, albeit from a tight angle.

Their boss John Askey was “very disappointed” not to have taken anything from the clash.

He said: “I thought there were spells of the game, especially in the first half, where we played well.

“I went in at half-time quite happy, but when we came out for the second half, for 15 minutes we didn’t compete and that was disappointing.

“The goal we gave away was disappointing. We’ve not got up high enough and were lethargic for whatever reason.

“We knew Scunthorpe would come out and compete more. We should have expected it, but we didn’t. We thought we were just going to carry on from where we left off at the end of the first half.

“When we changed it again we looked like we were going to get a goal and we should have scored to be honest.

“That’s what’s so frustrating – a lot of things were good, but we’ve come away with nothing.”